2018 SMR 37

Cool this morning, after a short heat wave.  I went with arm warmers, shorts, jersey, no jacket.

Wildlife Encounter:  deer on The Approach.

Lots of riders this morning, probably practicing for The Challenge next week.

JB didn't bring any food or drink so he used that as an excuse, but it didn't slow him down too much.

Nice and sunny until about Devil's Elbow where there was a tiny dark cloud we had to ride through.

I stopped at Junction on the way down and Kasters was there helping a guy inflate his tire - turns out the TWO pumps in the bike repair station are both broken.

Home before 11am... you know the rest of the day is going to go well when that happens.

What a nice surprise to find I captured this perfect "thumbie".

2018 WNR 12

Got out of work a little later than I was expecting and had to sprint the 7.5 miles to get home in time to prep for the Wednesday Night Ride... so I got to The Church a few matches short.  Shawn and Justin were there and we enjoyed a great ride together.

Hot day for early Autumn - I brought two bottles filled with ice and tea and wore my sleeveless jersey and did a lot of sweating... but the sun was already low so it cooled down a lot before Junction.

Wildlife Encounter:  turkeys
Roadkill Report:  snake
Tarantella tally: one

It was getting dark enough on the descent to make me think this might be the last WNR of the year... and I thought it was a shame that I didn't declare it to be such before we started.  At The Zigzag I saw a coyote sniffing a reflective cycling vest.  Coyote ran away but I brought the vest down to The Gate in case anyone came back to look for it.

Wildlife Encounter:  coyote at The Zigzag

Photo credit:  Shawn

Fast guy on robin's egg blue bike passing me.

Fast guy on robin's egg blue bike documenting how much faster than me he is.

Coyote and reflective cycling vest at Zigzag

2018 SMR 36

Didn't feel especially energetic or strong today, but I did feel extraordinarily smooth and efficient.

Wildlife Encounter:  deer at Little Pine

JB's in Iowa so I decided to not stop at Junction and keep that smoothness going until Juniper, where I had my Clif Bar and changed the battery in my camera.  There was a troop of ROTC students or something all dressed in fatigues going for a hike with heavy backpacks, and a few instructors barking instructions at them.

Roadkill Report:  a snake and a lizard

Diablo Challenge is in TWO WEEKS.  Your humble blogger will again be driving backpacks up and escorting riders down; please come say hi.

2018 SMR 35

I woke up this morning feeling GREAT!  I was literally dancing around in my boxers with my earbuds in while I made coffee and oatmeal and prepped for my ride.  My greyhound Isaac got a zippy walk and then I was on the road.  It was a little cool, so I went with arm warmers and a wind vest, but no knee warmers.

JB was a little late and I saw a few of the Saturday Morning Regulars start up while I was waiting.  Pretty windy the first few miles and it looked like it was actually raining off in the distance... but nothing was going to spoil my mood.  After the Ranches though it got a bit nicer and sunny and things just kept getting better after that.

At Junction, I was eager to get going ASAP but we did a normal amount of rest-stopping anyway.  By Juniper I could hardly keep the enthusiasm curbed, and by Devil's Elbow I unloaded my full load of exuberance and practically sprinted to The Summit.

All SMRs should feel this good.  And home before 11 to top it off.

2018 WNR 11

Lots of riders coming down, but nobody but me most of the way up - I passed one guy on a mountain bike, then another roadie just before Chainbuster.  He was a friendly guy about my age so we talked about bike crashes and injuries and experience with emergency doctors.  Another guy came up from SouthGate with the loudest bike speaker I've ever heard outside of Critical Mass... the whole Mountain was shaking.  He added that he had a cobalt hip.

Then on the way down, just past Chainbuster, I recognize Justin from my old company and I turned around and rode the last mile or so with him.

Pretty dark on the way down, and the sunset was right in my eyes in some sections - it's weird that looking into the sunset kind of takes away your depth perception.

Had my rear-view camera mount on tonight.

2018 SMR 34

Yesterday was HOT!  Today started off a little cool - I decided on arm warmers.

Got a flu shot on Thursday... felt just the tiniest bit crummy, and my arm is still a little sore.

JB turned around at Junction with too much stuff to do at home.  As I was conjuring my motivation to continue alone... I see ELMAR who arrived a few minutes behind us.  Elmar and I rehashed old times when we both worked for the same company, and then we went UP.

Elmar's been doing short triathlons and he does Diablo for training and he takes BART from Berkeley so he's self-motivated.

Wildlife Encounter:  usual turkeys in the usual place.

Right about here, it occured to me that Elmar's jersey was "sky-blue".

2018 SMR 33

Started off kind of cool... arm-warmer cool.

Nice and warm by Junction, almost hot at Summit.

Tarantella Tally:  Two dead ones.

There were a lot of riders hanging out at Junction... seemed like more than were actually riding.

Saw a guy walking downhill near the Ranches... he said he had two flats and only one tube but had already called for a ride - so if I gave him a tube it wouldn't have helped.  I almost always have TWO tubes... because two flats in the same ride sometimes happens... or a buggered up repair.

I like to post photos of guys passing me - keeps my head from getting too big.

And if the guys passing me are wearing Triple Crown Jerseys... it's not too deflating.

I always catch a little air going over this sink-crack.